Zammuto - IO

I loved the last album that Nick et al put out a couple years ago, and I really had no idea another one was coming out, so this was a very nice surprise. I've already listened to the new one, which doesn't really come out for a couple days, but rest assured it's excellent. Different from the last, yet similar. You can definitely expect it to be on my end of year best of list. This song is quite a bit... lighter than the others? It's cool, but there are several better ones to be found on it.

Beck - Heaven's Ladder

This was never actually released on any album, just in sheet music form in the Song Reader book slash website concept thingy that came out a couple years ago. So, in a way, this is kind of a brand new song I guess?

Down With The Butterfly - Tanks

Great song from an underrated band out of Halifax. That said I'm not even sure if they're still a thing. It's a shame, if not. Not too many bands like this right now.

The Saturday Beat

It's Saturday, and that can mean only one thing. Beats! Awwwww yiss.



Dub? Trap? I'm bad with genres. Pretty funky whatever it is.



Now this is mad funky, almost worthy of a Friday. I wanted to post the actual link to this one but some marketing 'genius' decided I shouldn't be able to embed the track in a blog. Real smart pal, let's make it difficult to hype dope tunes. You deserve a raise.



Funky. Disco. House.



I love this remix. I used it in one of my mixes a year or so back.



We've had a good little dance party, so let's wind down with this killer chiller.

Vulfpeck - 1612

Saw these guys in a reddit post. Ridiculously funky. I am a fan.

EDIT: That's Antwaun Stanley on the vocals. He's also featured on this track.

Trombone Shorty - Buckjump

Right, here's some funk.

Ben L'Concle Soul - A Coup De Rêves

Looks like it's time for some Friday Funk. Let's start with this French fella. More like soul, almost a motown vibe maybe, but still pretty funky. Meh. It works. 

Antemasque - Drown All Your Witches

It doesn't take long to hear a pretty distinct voice in this track. Of course it's Cedric from the Mars Volta and At The Drive-In. This is a sort of side project slash supergroup of sorts with him and his guitar buddy Omar, with some help from a little guy named Flea. Not surprisingly, it doesn't deviate too much from their other work. Still sounds cool though, we'll see where they take it from here.

Jonquil - Lions

I couldn't find a video for this anywhere so I'm using this fan-made one. I heard this track on the brilliant trailer for "Tomorrow We Disappear". I'd heard of these Oxford chaps before but never really paid them much mind. There's just a sort of haunting quality to this track though, it's really cool. Think I'll have to check out some more of them now.

Arkells - Never Thought This Would Happen

I missed yesterday. That was not intentional. These guys have a new album coming out. They're pretty popular in the indie circles, I suppose for good reason. Always been kind of hit and miss for me. I feel the same about this track. It's ok. I have an issue with it being labeled as an 'acoustic' rendition when there's a drum track playing in the background. Perhaps 'stripped' would be more accurate. 

Lusine - Arterial

Now this is what I'm talkin' bout. Dope track, sick video, top notch. This is the work of Jeff McIlwain, and he is in his groove. A+, keep up the good work dude.

Pretty Lights - Lost And Found

This fella has drifted quite a ways from the trippy soulful grooves that got him big in the first place, lately opting for big-sounding electro dub. I really wasn't a fan of his last album, which is disappointing because I loved his older stuff. I guess we all have to evolve in our own ways and obviously somebody is really digging his new stuff, but I just ain't feelin' it. This is actually a b-side from the new album, and for me it's better than most (if not all) of the a-sides.

Helios - First Dream Called Ocean

It's Tuesday, it's late, we need some chill-out beats. This is the Stray remix of a great track by Keith Kenniff, a prolific ambient producer and musician extraordinaire. I highly recommend checking out all his stuff, especially if you're into thinking music.

FKA Twigs - Two Weeks

...and this is just crazy. Great track, awesome video. I had no idea who she was until I saw it, now I've got the album and I'm ready to give it a listen. Love the production, a kind of dub mix that sounds a bit like a couple tracks I've got on the go. Dig the vocal mix too, though the lyrics are definitely PG-13. Earmuffs!

Addison Groove - Abandon

This is actually a Tony Williams (aka Headhunter) production, but it's Josefina who provides the lovely vocals. A nice chilled out grooooove...

Broods - Four Walls

So my vacation was nice, thanks for asking. Sorry for leaving that part out of my last post. I'm sure you understand. Lately Mondays have been all about metal, but it's cooler since my last post was pretty heavy, let's change it up today. How about ladies night? By that I mean some talented ladies doin' some sweet sainging. Here's Georgia Nott, one half of yet more talent from New Zealand. 

Tool - Right In Two

Since we've been talking about Mr. Carey, it seems criminal not to post a song by his real band. Upon closer inspection, it's been four years since I posted a video by them, and eight since they released an album. Coincidence? Completely. 

This is not an official video, since they hardly ever put those out, it's a fan-made one using footage from "The Gloaming", a pretty cool animated short worth watching. Man I hope their next album comes out one day. These guys are unquestionably one of the greatest bands on the planet in the history of all time ever. In the universe. Happy now, metalheads?

The Residents - Hello Skinny

Objection, Your Honor, Primus and The Residents aren't metal bands.

True enough, but nobody declared this an official Metal Monday anyway, and it's dark and dreary and twisted and loosely connected, so I'll allow it.

If you're into Primus you may recall an eerie cover of this song on the re-issue of Frizzle Fry, and in fact the vocals on this original, released in 1978, sound even more eerily just like Les Claypool, only it isn't. It's as if the song were always intended to be written for a man yet to perform it, and a band not yet created. Bizarre, creepy, and wonderful. 

Primus - Over The Electric Grapevine

What do you do when you're the world's greatest bass player and you need a stand-in for your world class drummer on your upcoming tour? Why, you get the world's greatest drummer, of course. What a silly question. Haha. 

Of course these opinions are subjective, but if you were to ask most aficionados, the names Les Claypool and Danny Carey would, at the very least, be in the conversation as the best on their respective weapons of choice. Herb isn't far behind Mr. Carey in my books, but this is like a present to all those drummer geeks who always wondered "what if?" I envy all who get to witness this guaranteed awesomeness.

The Saturday Beat

Time to revive the old bonus beats again, but slightly different. I used to embed the YouTube links and then minimize the player but it doesn't really work now with the new code so I'll just switch to Soundcloud links instead. Probably for the best anyway.

A bangin' track that's a couple years old but still rock solid. Classic Green Velvet techno groove combined with the Harvard BASS. Yessir.

Funky bumpin' house track with that lick of motown. Classy.

Deep, dark, and delicious. Late night tech house for the moonlight.

Bouncy poolside summer groove. Lovin' this one.

Some nice phat mainline groove action. Really smooth remix.

Bryan Raydio - Into The Deep EP

So it's done. Finally. At last. This one has proved a major roadblock, but I'm through it. Now onto more, and much, much sooner. While it's been a good two years since I put out my last EP, it's actually been about four years since the very first incarnations of these tracks took shape. They've gone through countless edits and I was just never satisfied with them. After chipping away I'm finally where I can say I've had enough.

Production, mixing, and mastering was all done by me, mostly in FL Studio using various VSTs both native and external. The songs themselves are kind of a progressive-techno-IDM mix, I'm never really sure how to describe my stuff in terms of genre unless it's clear-cut. Definitely a darker feel to these ones, pretty intense, which isn't necessarily a reflection of my mood these days, it's just how the songs came out. Hopefully they don't scare anyone away!

I'd like to think I've made a few advances technically since the last release. Hopefully these tracks have a cleaner sound to them. I was pretty meticulous in the mixing stage and spent a lot of time making sure everything was EQ'd properly and in phase. That's not to say it will be perfect, because for all I know on some speakers they could sound crap, but after testing on my studio monitors, various headphones and ear buds, and the car stereo, they sound ok on my end at least. Do let me know if there are glaring errors.

One thing I did differently in the mastering stage this time was I left some air in the final cut. Those in the production business will have seen and heard countless tracks that are blasted and squashed and maximised to death. Some refer to it as the loudness war. I'm very conscious of it and after making a couple different versions, I much preferred to leave the volume down and leave the original dynamics. So at the final limiting stage I only compressed the peaks by maybe 1-1.5 db at the most, most of the time it wasn't compressing at all. If you have no idea what any of that means, don't worry about it. It just means you might have to turn up the volume a little bit if you want it real loud. 

Now that these buggers are out of the way there will be more, and soon. I put out six EP's in 2012, I expect to have at least two or three more out this year. I'm going to leave this here for a couple days. Click on the album cover below to get to the download page. I'll get back to posting on Saturday.

Red Fang - The Meadows

Brand new video! Done and done.

Iced Earth - A Question Of Heaven

I'm actually pretty shocked that I've never posted any of these guys before. Not that I listen to them every day or anything even close, but they're a pretty awesome metal band. 

Killswitch Engage - The End Of Heartache

I was going to post my own stuff, but it'll have to wait until tomorrow. I'll fall back on some metal, since it's Monday. This is actually three songs all in one go. These guys have a new singer, but he ain't Howard Jones. Behold his greatness.

1 - The End Of Heartache

2 - Take This Oath

3 - Numbered Days

United Steel Workers Of Montreal - Place St. Henri

Wooo, what a rush. Let's slow things down and slide into the evening with this fantastic outfit from Montreal. Haven't heard anything new or seen them live in a couple years, but I hope they're still going strong.

Steve N Seagulls - The Trooper

Can't go wrong with a bluegrass cover of Iron Maiden, amiright?

Old Man Luedecke - Kingdom Come

It's a lazy Sunday so that sounds like a good excuse to post some relaxing acoustic stuff. Starting with some bluegrass from this cheery fella from Nova Scotia. 

London Elektricity - All Hell Is Breaking Loose

This is a track from 2008 with a new video. Farking brilliant.

Todd Terje - Spiral

I post a fair bit of this fella, but it's only because he's awesome.

The Subs - Concorde

I'm a bit tuckered out from a long day in the sun so I thought I'd post some chillaxo music, but then I thought no, I'm going to suck it up and rock some dance beats. Git 'er done.

Here Come The Mummies - Chaperone

I like to call this genre mummy funk.

Har Mar Superstar - Prisoner

I know nothing about this band or producer. Not even going to do any research. Just gonna post it. Creds to Johnston Haynes for posting this elsewhere. And yes, that is Juliette Lewis.

The Whispers - Keep On Lovin' Me

It's Funky Fresh Friday. I stole that from DJ STV, but there you have it. Let's boogie.

Tom Petty - Forgotten Man

Meanwhile, outlasting them all, is this king among kings. Not to sell his band short at all, it wouldn't be right without The Heartbreakers, but it's just shorter to write this way. Call me lazy. Anyway the man is 63 years old and just put out a new record. It's an impressive effort if you ask me. Maybe not among his best, but when you've been writing and releasing new music for 40 damn years... rest assured Tom, you are not forgotten.

R.E.M. - Discoverer

At the other end of the life-cycle spectrum, this, to my knowledge, is the last ever complete band session of this world renowned act, and this is the very last song. What a moment, and a great way to wrap up a lifetime of rocking out.

Black James Franco - A Small, Good Thing

Here's a little garage slash basement act, simple but sweet. The song title could almost be used as a band tagline. I dare say some Jack White influence in here somewhere...

Jon Hopkins - Abandon Window

And even more contemporary, and let's get rid of vocals altogether.

Gregory Porter - No Love Dying

Now let's get a little modern, and strip it back a little more. Chip Crawford on the keys.

Sonny Boy Williamson - Nine Below Zero

It's been a little heavy around here, so let's slow things down, waaaaay down. I'm not sure of the date of this one, but I'm guessing it's late '50s, maybe around 1960. That's the one and only Memphis Slim with the intro, and in the band the legendary Otis Spann (piano) and Willie Dixon (bass). Matt Murphy of Blues Brothers fame is on the guitar, not sure about the drummer. Anyone have a guess?

Buildings - Because It Doesn't Matter

Now for something new, that's probably a little more stoner punk than metal, but it's heavy enough for me to qualify. The video has clowns which makes it creepy, so that's bonus marks as far as Metal Monday is concerned. Get into it, man.

Prong - Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck

Nothing like a solid metal one hit wonder to keep us going. To be fair, these guys are far more prolific than that, and it's beyond a stretch to label them like that, but this is really the only song I can really remember getting into. I even bought the album when it came out. Listening to it now, it's pretty ordinary stuff, but hey, it's a blast from the past, so why not.

Down - Stone The Crow

Let's make this a proper Metal Monday, since I seem to be back on track in the posting department. I remember hearing this track back in '95 and thinking "this is awesome" so I couldn't really understand why I hadn't posted it yet, but then I remembered why because it was near impossible to find a decent version of the video with audio that didn't sound like a bad radio recording. This isn't the greatest quality ever, but it'll do. Now to get caught up on all the stuff they've put out in the last 20 years that I missed...

Raleigh Ritchie - Stronger Than Ever

Who knew eunuch warriors could be so creative? Grey Worm has some pretty cool tracks, this one has been in and around the UK charts for a bit. I wouldn't call it ground breaking originality, but it's pretty decent effort, and I'm looking forward to hearing more from this accomplished spear assassin.

Molotov Jukebox - Double Dare

And a little gypsy music, which somehow seems appropriate coming from Osha the Wildling, aka the fabulous Natalia Tena. I like this one better than Melisandre's offering.

(please don't burn me)

Carice van Houten - Particle Of Light

It's a Sunday and there's no Game of Thrones. I know, I know, it's been like that for a few weeks now, but still. The damn show is addictive. Such a ridiculously talented cast. Let's show off a few more of them, starting with Melisandre, aka the Red Woman, the fiery priestess all up on the Lord of Light. I guess this song is from her softer side?

Fairmont - Dysnomia

More Canadian techno! This time out of Toronto, via Jake Fairley. Really solid track, nice mid-set psychedelic propulsion unit. Wacky atomic video to go with it.

Steb Sly - Roadtrip

Straight outta the 'fax, some steady beats from Steve Sim.

Hugo - Joint Is Jumping

I've been talking about finishing my own tracks for a while now, and now I'm finally going over the finishing touches to this EP I've been meaning to have out ages ago. One final mixdown session and a little mastering treatment and she'll be good to go. In the meantime here's some techy beats to move them feet.

This is actually the Audiojack remix of this track, which is a dope sounding deep tech house groove. The video is a total waste of time so feel to skip it.

20syl - Kodama

Where do people come up with these names? Numbers, big letters, small letters, I guess you've gotta be creative these days. My name seems pretty dull in comparison. Anywho this is a great video for this chillstep track. I especially like the drawring and the knitting. The chess is a nice touch too.

High Tone - Until The Last Drop

These crazy Frenchmen are always good for something wacky, which this video surely is. It's a little more upbeat dub, almost trip-hoppy. Meh, it's got some wub-wubs.

Para One - Every Little Thing

I'm not big into the dub per se, but there are some choice tracks out there. I'm a fan of this dude's production, and to be honest I like the original mix sans Cam'ron better, but this'll do for now. Dubbin' it up. Here we gooooo...